How do I describe my relationship with a Valkyrie? Well like many, I started by watching Robotech. I always thought Valkyries were one of the best robot designs ever to be realized. Many Valkyrie toy designs came and went, many ingenious feats of engineering came to fruition by many manufacturers. Some official, some not so official so the quality and execution varied greatly.

Now it's Kaiyodo's turn to give us their version of the transforming Valkyrie, in this case the VF-1S, while remaining faithful to their Revoltech line which uses their ever popular joints. I was a little skeptical as to how these figures would turn out since in my experience with Revoltech figures, they have been soft and "greasy" as well as compromising certain proportions for joint placement. Well to my surprise, it was a lot different than I expected.

Included in the package:

VF-1S in Fighter mode

10 Point Revochip

Joints box

Stand with joints

Wrist tab hooks (2)

Gun pod

Head and cockpit shield

Alternate hands and fists.

Paperwork

Lets get started, it comes packed in the new bigger style Revoltech Yamaguchi box with a paper belt. Its been designated Series No. 83. The Valkyrie comes packed in Fighter form.

FIGHTER Mode

This is how it looks right out of the box. Nice, clean elegant design

Here's a look at the bottom. You'll notice, the head is missing. More on that later in the review.

Transformation into the alternate modes is very easy due to the fact that many owners of other Valkyries will be mostly going through the same motions as you would most other versions. Newcomers to this robot, may need to look over the instruction booklet. The figure feels fiddly while all limbs and pieces are splayed out, but at no time did it feel brittle. I was not being overly careful while transforming so at the moment, I can say that the plastics are of good quality. Something that may annoy some is that parts (wings, the flap behind the head and the "backpack") will fall off during transformation since most of the parts are held on with joints or have friction tabs. In no way is it as bad as the Toynami 1/100s that fall apart almost completely,

I don't own a lot of Revoltech's but this figure has the most joints I have come across, some are small double joints which I am finding to be very loose on this figure, thankfully they can be squeezed from the side to tighten them up a bit. It almost seems that the "fiddliness" would cause some frustration during transformation, but everything falls right into place and tabs hold everything nice.

When you pull the arms down, you'll notice there are tabs sticking out of the wrists. These are cleverly hidden by folding out the fist and folding them in. The kit comes with 2 little plastic hooks to help you pull the tabs back out. Be careful however, as pushing the tab too far in will cause it to get caught behind the wrist hinge and the little plastic hooks will be of no use getting them out. The paint looks horrible in the picture but I didn't notice it while handling it, zooming in doesn't help in making it look any nicer. Note: My VF-1A version did not suffer from this.

GERWALK Mode

Here is my best attempt at a stable standing Gerwalk mode, however, more dynamic poses can be achieved with the included base. My only complaints up to this point is that the rear section of the fighter doesn't come up and around very well which make it very noticeable in Gerwalk mode. There is nothing to secure it in place. Also, the arms are very loose at the shoulders, requiring a step backwards in transformation to squeeze-tighten them. Shown are the alternate open hands.

BATTROID Mode

Right out of the box you'll notice the hands are teeny. Not to fret as the included accessories come with bigger fists and open hands. Here you see him giving a salute with one of the alternate hands. Take a second to note that the joints are pretty well hidden. There is nothing readily apparent to point out it's Revoltech lineage. He stands at 5.75" tall (14.6cm)

Now lets have some fun with the poses. I didn't find myself fighting with the joints during posing, they seemed to know exactly how I wanted them to move...which is more than I could say about my other Revoltechs which I have given the "gift of flight" from frustration. This may be due in part to the harder type plastics used. Here, I've outfitted him with the alternate fists and Gun Pod. Of course, being a Revoltech, a multitude of poses can be acheived. Some a lot cooler than I'm able to achieve myself without a stand. I've chosen not to use the stand to show its ability to pose on its own.

Ok, so he looks cool from the front, but what kind of horrid, joint riddled mess awaits out back? Well, let's take a peek shall we?... Its actually pretty clean. Kaiyodo has done a good job of keeping the joints well hidden and not too obvious. Thank goodness for that.

Perfect Transformation? Not 100% but darn close. If you leave the standard fists, all you really need to add/remove is the head during transformation (haven't been successful with the head in place), swap cockpit pieces and add/remove Gun Pod holder.

Tips:

I'd like to touch again on the joints. Some may seem severely loose to the point where they are useless. I found that by pushing on the sides it tightens them up a bit.

When you pull the Valkyrie out for the first time, you may notice that from behind in Fighter mode, you can see the standard teeny fists which make for an eyesore, however, they DO fold into the forearm. Why it was packed with the fists out, instead of hidden is anyone's guess. Here, you can see how neatly they fold in. Visible again is the sloppy paintjob, although this is the only imperfection I found on the entire figure.

Like I stated before I was going to explain why the head wasn't shown attached in Fighter mode in the pics above. Since this is how it came out of the box, I assumed not having head attached in Fighter mode was one of the compromises of the figure, but soon after, I realized that there are provisions for head attachment in this mode. Otherwise it would have been a huge negative. So go ahead and slap that head on!

The Good:

The price, about 20 bucks

Sharp paint apps

Nice proportions

Almost perfect transformation

Poseability

Joints are well hidden

The Bad:

Fiddly at times if joints get loose, but quickly fixed

Wings fall off easily when handling

"Gerwalkward" at times, rear section sticks up, not flush

FAST pack would be nice... Future add-on?

The Ugly

Sloppy paint on one of the forearms, may be isolated incident as my VF-1A does not suffer from this

Rear section does not fold up and around for flush appearance

In closing, I'd like to say overall I am quite happy with this release. Some diehards may find more to nitpick, but most will appreciate that a nice pose-able Valkyrie can be had for about 20 dollars. It seems like it can take some "abuse" for those that really play with their toys, so that alone gets my thumbs up.

moving to the big times, eh lol? Nice review, I'm no Revoltech expert infact I don't even own one but in my opinion it seems the QC has taken a step down. After seeing this and some Grendizer pictures the paint seems pretty sloppy. Granted these are tiny figures but it always seemed like the earlier Revos had better paint jobs and IMHO looked better, where as now it seems like articulation has taken a priority over sculpting. I may be wrong but it seems like the popularity of Revos has maybe surpassed Kaiyodo's ability to keep up with production demands while maintaining high QC.

I've been waiting to get a Revoltech, but something kept holding me back--The Transformers looked too "Pat Lee", lots of characters/robots I'm not that interested in, etc. This $20 transforming super-articulated valkyrie me be a little too hard to resist. I think that picture of the toy holding its gunpod with both hands is what's really selling me.

The review made me wonder, though: Why is the white painted on? I guess they couldn't achieve that color white just using white plastic? Maybe it's a primer for the other paint apps? My original Yamato valks definitely have paint smearing issues, probably cause by lack of a primer (and my sticky fingers :( )

This figure looks pretty damn cool. I love the idea of a transformable Revoltech.
What do you mean when you say your past RTs felt "greasy"? My Gundam figures (toys,not models) have a slight slimy feel,but not my RTs.

Chen-
You've got to take into account how small these figures are. Yes,with this close up photography you can see several flaws,but when you look at one of the figures in person,they look fine. Not owning one you may not realise (I certainly didn't till I ordered my first) these figures are SMALL for a robot. The head is basically the size of a G.I. Joe guy's head. I appreciate quality as much as the next guy,but realistically there's only so much you can ask for.

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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup

I wasn't sure if greasy was the correct word to describe it, but the other Revoltechs had almost like a mold release type of feel to them, like the figure would feel somewhat slippery but against my fingers the residue would feel grippy. Strange.

You are right about the close ups,I darn near didn't even notice the paint pimples until I was editing the photos.

Oh I know these are tiny but we are talking about a country that makes mini versions of plastic sushi that looks realistic so just because something is tiny doesn't mean that it has to be sloppy. The old Kaiyodo Robot Museum figures of Getter 1 and Gaogaigar and company were just the same size and had incredible paint jobs so it's not like Kaiyodo hasn't produced tiny figures before, when infact they have a long history of making high quality small figures and capsule toys. Still for around $20 a figure I'm not really complaining.

"I mean let's face it friend, Revoltech's aim is to make those action figures as dynamic & as screen-accurate as possible."

Not so sure I agree with you there. I think Revoltech's aim is to sell as many toys as possible to as many fans as possible. "Dynamic" depends on your definition of the word in relation to collectibles. I honestly can't think of a single figure that they make that I'd call "screen-accurate." Mazinkaiser, maybe, and how long ago was that? "Poseable" is the best descriptor I can apply to Revoltech across the board, from 1st release to now.

The words screen-accurate and Macross in the same sentence start more stupid internet fights than it's worth to even discuss the topic.

As for Prime and other TF Revoltechs- Takara did a little Prime toy a few years ago, called THS-02 HYBRID STYLE CONVOY with a complete transformation, trailer cab, and it was pretty cool if i recall. I'd love to see more Revoltech TFs, as Megatron was one of the best figures the company has ever done. But I'm pretty sure that transforming Transformers would cut into the bottom-line of Hasbro & Takara and their 80's reissue+huge markup cartel. Has anyone besides Takara/Hasbro done transforming versions of the characters?

You know, they can have both COMMERCIAL aims (sell many toys) and CREATIVE aims (merge anime styling with dynamic posability). That is, if you believe Yamaguchi and his Kaiyodo staff have any creativity left in them after all these years.

Nothing is wrong with making money, especially when it's not only a good value but a great, fun product. I didn't mean to suggest Revoltech figures weren't creative- they have a specific design style, which is fairly consistent across the line, and you either like them or don't. I think they're pretty cool, and have owned a few, but for some characters... It's just that the goal of the Revoltech line is obviously not screen-accuracy. It's to sell a lot of super-poseable affordable figures in a modern, stylized look. What's wrong with that? Nothing in my book.

For one thing, it SERIOUSLY fails the fly-around-the-room test. You take the toy and fly it around your bedroom--making the appropriate "WOOOSH" and "DZZZUUUUUU" noises, of course--and do you get back as many parts as you started with? In this case, no; my VF-1J was missing both wings and the head by the time it got back to base. The wing joint is so touchy, in fact, that I can't even swivel them without the wing popping off in my hand.

The backpack is also a huge disappointment, because while the rest of the toy has pins all over it to hold it together, the backpack only locks down in Fighter mode--in Gerwalk or Battroid it just flops all over the place. (You can see this in the article pictures.) I have mine displayed in Gerwalk, and I found that the only way to make the backpack look good was to literally detach the piece and lay it on top of the figure.

Poseability? Forget it! Much of the Revoltech joint work in this figure is devoted to the transformation. Compared to the single-mode Valkyrie figures this one is a lump. I mean, the whole point of Revoltech is the crazy poses, otherwise you might as well just buy a GN-U Dou or a Takatoku reissue. (PS I find that the Revoltech Valkyries look better in the "wide stance" than the "crotch thrust".)

I think that the "transformable Revoltech" is an idea that's better in concept than in reality. Which is unfortunate, as I was kind of looking forward to a Revoltech Gerwalk...

I agree. Swooshability is paramount.
Even the old Banpresto transformable VF-1s were highly swooshable. The only thing that could happen was the fists falling off, but you were supposed to remove them during transformation.

I think the engineering of the Revoltechs is first rate but I think some fans are put off by the design which honestly can be "blamed" on Katsuhisa Yamaguchi since he sculpted most of them and the line continues his design theme. I guess it's like Hajime Katoki and his Gundam's either you like his take on them or you don't. I think it's the same with Revoltechs and Yamaguchi.